China’s massive holiday migration begins
China’s massive holiday migration begins
By Agence France-Presse, Updated: 1/8/2012
The world’s largest annual migration of people officially began in China on Sunday with millions of travellers boarding public transport to journey across the vast country for Lunar New Year celebrations.
The government estimates the number of passenger trips on trains, planes, boats and buses will reach 3.2 billion during the holiday, also known as the Spring Festival, up 9.1 percent from last year.
At a train station in Beijing, hundreds of travellers wheeling suitcases and carrying bags stuffed with clothes and instant noodles queued at temporary ticket booths or filed through security barriers to wait for their trains.
University students surnamed Liu and Bao were changing trains in the capital as they travelled from the southwestern province of Guizhou to Inner Mongolia in the north — a journey of more than 40 hours.
Despite the long distance, the pair said they were “very happy” to be going home to celebrate with their families.
The public security ministry urged travellers to be wary of “harsh weather” conditions, with fog, rain and snow forecast in parts of the country during the festival travel season, which ends on February 16, Xinhua news agency said.
Millions were left stranded during the 2008 Spring Festival after the most ferocious winter weather in at least five decades froze key sections of the transport network just as vast numbers of people were heading home.
Although the week-long holiday officially begins on January 23, demand for tickets is high many weeks in advance, with migrant workers desperate to return to their home villages and towns queuing for hours, even days, to buy tickets.
Gui Yurong, who sells clothes in Beijing, said it took her 10 days to buy a ticket to her hometown of Jixi in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang — a 22-hour journey.
“I travel home once a year,” the 43-year-old told AFP.
“I’m going to give my classmates, friends and family clothes, trousers and silk scarves,” she said, pointing to several suitcases stuffed with presents.
A new online system designed to make it easier for people to buy train tickets for the holiday this year has been overwhelmed by huge demand from millions of travellers across the country.
Many flooded social networking sites to vent their anger at spending hours trying to access the new system, only to find that tickets allocated for that day had already sold out.
Officials have pledged to improve the website’s design and increase the network bandwidth to handle demand, as well as refund money to out-of-pocket travellers within 15 days, earlier state media reports have said.
The government has also introduced a real-name ticketing system to stop scalpers selling tickets, but the new measure has left some travellers stranded after they bought tickets through friends.
“We have bought tickets but we have a problem because the tickets are registered in someone else’s name,” said a man surnamed Xu standing outside the train station with his wife and child.
Source: http://news.malaysia.msn.com/top-stories/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5737492, 14-012-2012
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China’s massive holiday migration begins each years as the Lunar year approaching. It’s a yearly affairs, millions of travellers will be boarding public transport back home to celebrate the Spring Festival or Lunar New Year. Its this event hundreds of millions of people will leave their cities in order to visit their families in more rural parts of the country. This is a period of travel with extremely high traffic, where rail or any transport experiences is the biggest challenge. As time goes by having faced the same problems, the authority is trying to improve the transportation system each year. May those travelling each year during this massive migration have a safe journey home.
Even though its a old post yet good to know about it, so when we go on holidays we should not travelled at this peak season or massive migration .
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It is just great that for those in China, that they do go back home to visit their parents and family. They are willing to go through all the trouble because they really love their family and know that it is a duty to be always concern about our parents.
Hopefully more around the world would be like that as well. Going to great lengths to visit their parents and family in their hometown. There are many people now that are not willing to even visit their parents when they live 10 or 20 minutes away from their parents. I think that this is just really sad as definitely their parents would be missing them, yet they do not care. But when their parents past away, only then they will start to regret for not spending time with them while they were alive.
Chinese New Year is around the corner. It is this time that we will see massive migration of people in China to pave their way to their hometown which may take many hours and transits to reach home…be it train, buses or any mode of transport. Gong Xi Fa Cai! May they have safe trip home.
Every year I see the same the same problems that the Chinese face. So sad…they have to spend days just to get a ticket and sardined just to get on board the train… I shall never complain about the country I live in and be thankful for the ‘little’ traffic jam that we have. May they arrive home safe to celebrate Spring Festival with their love ones.
Annually, it seems more than 700 million chinese journey back to see their families they may not have seen for many months or even years, as migrant workers return home for their Traditional Spring festival celebrations. Journey ahead for home/or to reach home in time for the Chinese New Year in China, is not for the faint-hearted. It is said to include 15 hours of overnight “hard-seating” train journeys from Beijing/and or perhaps another 7/8 hours of bus trip to some village towns. It was said that traditionally going back home is the most important event for the family and the chinese people. Everybody can earn money to support their children/or viceversa for the family and parents, but able to see them once a year is the most exciting thing which every chinese is so desperately awaiting to go home for! Travelling back Traditionally for more than 700 million chinese people is described as the largest annual human migration on EARTH!
Pray for them to have smooth journey. I remember when i was in China year 2008, The Annual Spring Tv programme, beside showing cheerful Chinese New Year program, they also showed those victims who are trapped in the snow. Not to forget, the Tv programme also broadcast on those soldiers who scarified their leaves to save the victim. I am touch by the soldiers’ action. First time i learned that the soldier are to save life and not to go for war.
In china, people travel far far away from home to work in the big city. Many of them travel days in the train to reach home and stay for just 2 or 3 nights then have to return back to the city as the journey is really long. not people have the money to travel by air and many places can only be reach by bus. They even have to transfer at many places in order to reach home.